Computers have changed our lives. We can "hang out" with friends on the other side of the world, do business with people we've never even met by email or video conference, manage our finances from thousands of miles away in an instant and work from home, from a train station, from an aeroplane or from the beach (if you have to). The problem with this new connected nirvana: it's not secure.

Keep your security software updated - Don't be tempted to put it off till later. Most updates are improvements by a software company, patching up security threats and fixing bugs - if you don't update, you are creating vulnerabilities in your systems which could be utilised by hackers.